Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has signed a temporary constitution that will be in force for a five-year transitional period, three months after his forces led a lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Syria's new constitutional declaration maintains Islamic law as central during a transitional period under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. It ensures women's rights and freedom of expression. The declaration marks a shift from the former constitution and supports an inclusive governance approach,

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa was born in October 1982 in Saudi Arabia, where he spent the first seven years of his life. In a rare photograph of him as a child, found in a dossier compiled by Assad’s intelligence services, Sharaa has the same unsmiling, enigmatic expression he is often seen wearing today.

Syria’s interim president has signed a temporary constitution that leaves the country under Islamist rule for five years during a transitional phase

Religious and ethnic minorities, as well as the US and Europe, are wary about freedom of expression protections